Full of adventure, history, and passion, this tale delivers an exciting ride through the gold rush with a singular hero.
A Mexican bandit tells the story of his life as a lover and an outlaw in 19th-century California in this novel.
The California Rangers have finally killed the notorious Joaquín Murrieta, horse thief, murderer, and the scourge of the Old West. They have preserved his severed head in a jar of whiskey to present it to the authorities to collect a handsome reward. Joaquín, still sentient, notes wryly, “When whiskey goes to your head it is not so bad really...if you no longer have a stomach.” Joaquín proceeds to relate his rather colorful life story, starting in a small village in Sonora. He grows up among scorpions and a threatening panther in a world steeped in magic and folklore. As a teen, he spends three years learning to track and capture mustangs before returning home to marry his beloved Rosita. He and Rosita and three others decide to head north to California, arriving in San Francisco in the 1840s, early enough that they can still pick sizable gold nuggets out of the ground. The environment they inhabit is at first ideal but soon turns rough, yet the stallionlike Joaquín is undeterred. Settling in a secret valley, Joaquín steals horses and other people’s gold for a living, survives innumerable dicey encounters, and gains a reputation as a menace to society. Frustrated by gringo law and the Rangers, who are constantly pursuing him, Joaquín devises one last plot to take California for all it is worth and triumphantly ride back to Sonora with Rosita. But the Rangers have other plans for the bandit. Litton’s (Geminga: Sword of the Shining Path, 2016) novel has an irresistible premise, and the preserved head of the infamous Joaquín as narrator works very well, particularly in the book’s almost serene conclusion. The characters are fiery and real, and the indefatigable Joaquín has as much passion and even sweetness as he does bloodlust. Drenched in Mexican lore and California history, the story stands out for its convincing portrayal of the time period’s diverse competing interests and for its Spanish-laced prose, which has many wonderful lines. But the book is a bit long and somewhat overwritten; a more concise narrative would have helped to highlight the novel’s key events.
Full of adventure, history, and passion, this tale delivers an exciting ride through the gold rush with a singular hero.Pub Date: July 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-941408-65-0
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Crossroad Press Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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